Chilliwack, British Columbia | Dad and I are having some heated arguments lately. With some extra quota days etc, our barns have crept up to full. Or in my opinion full. Our cows are getting a 49.5%DM forage diet, and dad thinks it should be higher. In order to fill quota, we would need to milk more cows if we get less milk out of them.
However, I think our barns are at capacity. Our High group (we are only milking 120 or so total) currently has 90 cows in it. There are 92 freestalls and 144' of bunk space. Three 8' water troughs at three large crossovers. I think this pen is full, Dad wants to put up to 100 cows in this pen. Just insanity! Am I right? To add insult to injury, our parlour milks about 70 cows/hr, with how we run it currently. An extra row of cows means those last ones are in there an extra half hour every day! (10mins/milking x3)
Dad is afraid we are on the verge of a breakdown if we keep the forage in the diet this low. We usually run in the 55%DM forage range, but our corn silage got too dry and there is not enough OOMPH in it right now. As soon as this bunk is empty we have some better corn to go to. I do want to feed this corn out now, as I need these bunkers for 1st cut in May. So feeding the better stuff now is not an option at this point.
Boy, this turned out longer than I thought!
Thanks for any thoughts!
Glenn |
Overcrowd barns or more grain?
